Can Someone Really Be This Willfully Stupid?

September 29, 2010

I know it’s easy to pick on certain people in general, and popular in certain circles to pick on this person in particular, but come on, when someone goes on TV and is this belligerently and willfully ignorant, a few comments (even if they are negative) seem necessary.

Do you know what’s really important for a “fully functioning” human brain? The fact that our skulls aren’t fused at birth (a genetic ‘defect’) that allows our brains to get nice and big, and allows us to be ‘smart’. A mouse brain is not large enough to house all the complexities of the human animal. Sorry. (And no, that episode of Pinky and the Brain was not on the history channel Christine!)

If anyone cares, she’s probably referencing a study from National Geographic from Dec 2005. To say she has misunderstood it, and misrepresented it would be a small understatement.

Another gem:

First off, evolution is not a ‘myth’… at least, I assume, if Christine actually knew how the word ‘myth’ was properly used, she would not use it in this sense. Myths, in the academic sense, are a reflection of a society’s understanding of reality, proper behaviour, and a mirror of their own perception of themselves (insiders) or others (outsiders).

She most likely meant ‘Evolution is a fiction’ in the sense that it is a fabrication that is outright false. Very likely, this is not an issue that she has pursued in any serious way, and is actually one of the silly myths propagated in ignorant conservative evangelical circles. The actual goal of such rhetoric is to make it unnecessary to investigate any scientific evidence. It is not a scientific rebuttal to evolution, but rather, an apologetic argument designed to keep people ignorant.

Evolution is not a theory in crisis. It is not teetering on the verge of collapse. It has not failed as a scientific explanation. There is evidence for evolution, gobs and gobs of it. It is not just speculation or a faith choice or an assumption or a religion. It is a productive framework for lots of biological research, and it has amazing explanatory power. There is no conspiracy to hide the truth about the failure of evolution. There has really been no failure of evolution as a scientific theory. It works, and it works well.

“American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with… with mice with fully-functioning human brains.”

I’m not surprised. After all, they’ve already cross-bred humans and animals and come up with humans with fully-functioning mouse brains. Just visit Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Or the pulpits of some of your local churches. Or watch some music videos. You’ll spot them rather quickly.

According to this morning’s drive-time radio, her commercials are starting to hit the airwaves. They use the “witchcraft” angle — you know, her stating how she found out about Closet Satanists everywhere during her younger days as a “witch”? The interview taken almost word-for-word from Mike Warnke’s Satan Seller?

(No mention of little girls being pulled through dead horse’s rectums before being sacrificed, though…)